Secrets in the Water
by InnocentGuilt
Summary: Some secrets are only ever brought to light when shrouded by the darkness of death. Character death, me as an author. Pairings: past Zuko/Mai, past Sokka/Suki, Aang/Katara.Friendship fic.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Well, this is my first ever A:TLA fic and of course it revolves around my two favorite boys. This is a culmination of watching the series waaaaay too many times and noticing a few small things that you'll see mentioned below. This is also part of my own post-series head-cannon, because for this being my first story, I already have a timeline and sequence of events that happens in my head. I am a geek.

I realize not everyone may like certain things. In the summary I put that there were so many pairings and could be pairings. I understand your opinion, but please try and keep in mind that this is my head-cannon and I do enjoy it.

For anyone who wants a brief rundown, after the war, Mai and Zuko (obviously) stay in the Fire Nation. Aang and Katara go around the world helping to bring as much peace as possible and help the four nations find balance again. For a while Toph, Sokka, and Suki do what they can, travelling. Eventually Suki has to go back to her warriors (as she's the leader and all) and Toph and Sokka stay with her and travel on occasion when the three are needed. After Suki and Sokka break things off (amicably in my head) it kinda throws Toph and Sokka into a whirlwind of trouble-making.

And that's it!

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of their cool characters.

x….x

"Sokka?"

"Mmph?" is the response around a mouthful of roasted koala-lamb. It's clear to see that Zuko doesn't have Sokka's full attention, but neither of them minds.

It's a small dinner affair, even smaller than would have been. It was supposed to be Sokka, Suki, and Toph joining the Fire Lord and Lady for a small get together while the three were in the Nation's capital. However, it seems that Sokka and Suki had their last hoorah the week before their arrival and the young Kyoshi Warrior had turned heel to go home, letting Sokka and Toph continue on their journey alone. Many speculations on what had ended their relationship and if this was actually a forever situation are en circuits. Toph, who is also supposed to join them at the table, has simply failed to show up. She has never quite done well with traditional settings, and Zuko is sure that he will be hearing from the patrol any second about a brawl she has started.

Mai, his lovely Fire Lady, had started the evening meal with them, but she is just starting her first pregnancy and the very sight of the lamb had her sighing irately and slamming her napkin down. Apparently, what the midwife had called 'morning sickness' isn't restricted to the rising sun. She has yet to return and though Zuko wants to follow her, he knows he would likely only be impaled by a shuriken for his efforts.

He reasons with himself that if she doesn't return before the full sunset, he will risk his skin to make sure she is fine.

Because of these three missing people, their party of five consists only of a duet. Zuko sits at the end of the table, legs folded under him, and Sokka sits to his right in a more lax position with his legs crossed in a mutated version of the lotus style. It is a moment he has been waiting for nearly two years to have. He has had a question for the water tribesman since everyone had escaped off to Kyoshi island and he had seen something peculiar of the younger man.

"I have a question for you," Zuko says quietly, so that the milling staff in the palace doesn't easily overhear where this will go.

Sokka drops his chopsticks heatedly. "_No_, Toph and I are not an item!" he all but hollers, and the young woman standing nearby, ready to fill their wine glasses if needed, makes an aborted attempt to stifle her giggles.

Zuko flounders for a moment, something he is not unaccustomed to when in the presence of his close friends. They've always been able to get the better of him. He clears his throat. That had not been his question, but he supposes its good information to have. Calmly, he carries on. "My question actually had to do more with waterbending."

Sokka gives him a skeptical look before he leans in close, which usually would have his guards springing into action, but they have learned that there are people who are allowed to break his personal zone, one of them being the young man beside him. Sokka catches his eyes, and says in a low tone filled with sarcasm, "I know being Fire Lord is a strain on your brain, but I'm not Katara." He picks a piece of Zuko's koala-lamb off his plate and pops it into his mouth. "You may want to see your physician about this."

The Fire Lord is momentarily frustrated with Sokka, but he breathes out the feeling, something he's getting better at. "In the Fire Nation, it's extremely rare for one sibling to be a firebender while the other is not. There are not many families in the Earth Kingdom that have more than one child, however, those I did run across, all siblings either had the ability to Bend or they didn't."

Sokka shrugs. "Maybe the Water Tribes are different," he says nonchalantly, like it's nothing. Perhaps it isn't, but Zuko still can't help but feel that perhaps there is something missing. He knows what he saw that night, two summers ago. He may be partially blind in one eye, but his seeing is still good in the other. Sokka continues, uncaring of Zuko's narrowing gaze. "It could be like that in all the smaller denominations. Y'know, Aang hinted in one of his letters that he found what he suspected to be remnants of the Nomads, but only like two or three of the little ones were airbenders. After so long of not having steady Benders in the lineage, maybe the ability only has a one in three chance or something like that."

Skeptical and scientific to the end. That's Sokka.

"So you have no ability to Bend at all?" Zuko asks, gently setting his own chopsticks down as the young woman comes over to fill their glasses. He murmurs a small 'thanks' to her, as does Sokka and she smiles with a gentle blush. Zuko remembers that she had been on staff when his father was ruling, and Ozai's opinion had been that staff—slaves—were meant to be invisible.

Sokka takes a sip of the spiced wine, letting the flavors linger on his tongue like Uncle had taught all of the children before swallowing. Then, setting his glass on the table with far more grace than normally displayed from the water tribesman, he answers curtly, "No." Half a beat, maybe less, and Zuko sees some resentment in the statement, but it's covered quickly with a blinding Sokka smile. "I'm just the plan guy."

Zuko studies him, tapping his fingers lazily against the table in a mirror of what he had seen Sokka do two summers ago and once or twice over the few times they saw each other since then. "You don't feel the pull of the moon then?"

The younger's smile fades just a little, his eyes widening. "What does that have anything to do with…_ anything?_"

"Non-firebenders don't feel the call of the sun. Mai has never felt the urge to rise with the sun," –actually she was more murderous if even taunted to get out of bed with the sun- "I guess that all non-Benders have that freedom, to ignore the makers of the Benders. I would think that all of them would be unbound by sun, moon, stones, or breeze. I suppose you would be." Zuko watches with some satisfaction as Sokka takes a tiny, anxious swallow. "But you aren't, are you? You do feel the moon's sway."

"My first girlfriend became the moon,"-I loved her very much, goes unspoken- "Of course I would feel her sway."

They have a staring contest then, one willing the other to break first, to admit defeat in this silly argument. Unfortunately, they're both too stubborn, always have been. The stare-off lasts what feels like an eternity and then Sokka breaks it, but not by ignoring the situation. If anything he's almost more resolute that Zuko is, but his mistake is when he folds his arms on the table top and his left hand begins tapping against his right arm. Zuko keeps eye-contact with the tribesman a second, maybe two, and then his attention is drawn to something else.

Their wine ripples in tandem with Sokka's tapping finger. The younger seems to notice his folly and a soft curse leaves his mouth as he tucks his hands into his lap. He gives the Fire Lord a smoldering glare turned bitingly cold by the blue of his eyes. Tightly, he says, "It's nothing."

Zuko is still staring at Sokka, refusing to be even slightly affected by Sokka's glare, when Mai returns, her entrance hailed by the sound of her telling one of her hand maidens, "Back off! I'm pregnant, not spun glass!"

Zuko turns his gaze to his wife, pale as ever but looking just as strong as she always has. She doesn't show yet, a bump hardly even noticeable when she isn't swathed in layers upon layers of robes, but her gait seems softer as she settles next to him, her hand reaching unerringly for his.

Zuko puts Sokka apparent ability out of his mind for the moment.

x….x

Later that night, Zuko sits by the turtle-duck pond, tossing out bits of bread in remembrance of his mother. Mai scoffs and says she understands his need to be close to his mother even though she doesn't, thanks to her mother always telling her she was best seen and not heard, but she would rather stay inside. It doesn't bother Zuko, really. He would rather she not understand inside the palace walls, rather than pretend to understand while failing to hide her boredom next to him.

Toph had returned earlier in the night, escorted by the patrols and laughing as she collapsed into one of the sofas by the fire. She wasn't drunk, but apparently the patrols had a good time trying to get her to cooperate. Firebending is rarely a close contact form, while earthbending is an all distance style. Apparently, she kept tripping them as they escorted her from a pub brawl she had started.

Sokka, usually her partner in crime had smiled at her proudly, but otherwise not said anything, while Mai looked amused and Zuko thanked the patrol with a thunderous expression on his face. It had been times like those he wished Toph could see, because he hadn't felt it right that he yell at the youngest member of their group.

Toph had gone to bed shortly after explaining the shot by shot detail of the bar fight. In all likelihood she will sneak out and start more mischief somewhere else and this time likely take Sokka with her. Those two are destruction and mayhem, and now without Sokka's now ex-girlfriend to keep some semblance of an eye on them, Zuko can only imagine the havoc they would wreak on the world.

He is startled out of a semi-trance when the water sways somewhat livelier. He watches for a moment before turning around. Sokka is coming towards him, settles down beside him with his own hunk of stale bread. He sighs, and begins breaking the bread up, tossing it out for the turtle-ducks, ignoring the Fire Lord. Zuko notices offhandedly that somewhere under dense overhead clouds the moon is full and that every wave of Sokka's arm as he sends out breadcrumbs sends and equal if very weak wave across the little pond.

He doesn't mention it again though. He has a feeling, and he'll go with it this time as he always has. They sit in silence until all the bread is gone and Zuko has spent what little of his time he can with his mother's memory. Casting a glance to his companion, he wonders if in a way Sokka hadn't been doing the same, honoring his mother and his first love, the moon.

Sokka has settled both of his hands to rest on his knees, but after a few moments he picks up his hands and gives a lazy flick. Zuko watches in fascination as the water follows with a ripple of its own. "It's the most I can do," Sokka says at last, bringing his hand back and gazing at the otherwise calm liquid. "Normally, anyway, this is all I can do. Now," he picks his hand up and tenses it, long fingers frozen as if gripping an invisible orb tightly. He lifts his hand slowly fingers relaxing marginally as a small globe of water, perhaps the diameter of a gold piece, lifts away from the water for a moment, maybe two, before Sokka releases it with a whoosh of air. "When the moon is full, I can pull off that. But that's it."

He turns to Zuko, as serious as Zuko thinks he's ever seen him outside of the time the ventured to the Boiling Rock. Even when sparring, Sokka seems to maintain some whimsicality about him, but now…

"I don't waterbend. I can't do the swishy, water-ropey things that Katara and Aang can, and I can't turn water into ice any faster than it normally would and I can't turn ice into water any quicker than the sun. I don't have all that magic mumbo-jumbo." He looks at the pond again, and for a moment Zuko thinks he'll move the water again, but he doesn't.

Zuko stares for a moment, taking in the young man's profile highlighted and shadowed by the cloud-covered moonlight. "Have you ever practiced?" he asks haltingly, feeling as if he could be asking for too much. Sokka's just shared what is obviously more than anyone else knows. He wonders if Katara is even privy to this information, and somehow doubts it.

For being siblings and close ones at that, they still keep an ocean of secrets between them.

Sokka shrugs, half-hearted attempt to look like he doesn't care. "Kinda, but not really. I don't need to Bend. I told you. I'm the plan guy. I don't need this hogwash to get me through the day, just what's up here." He taps at his skull, still shaved except for the wolf-tail, would be until he married.

Zuko snorts, letting go of this for now, probably for a few good years, and teases, "That's not much to rely on."

Sokka punches him for that while letting out an indignant, "Hey!"

It strikes Zuko, as he rubs at his arm, that he has never met a potential Bender who simply didn't wish to Bend. Mai, and the Kyoshi Warriors, his mother, they never had the ability and it suits them just fine. However, every bender he had ever known was and is proud to have that skill, that asset. Sokka just doesn't care, doesn't care to learn or hone his talent.

It would never work in the Fire Nation, not for firebenders. An untrained firebender is dangerous to themselves and others. With water, Zuko would think there would be little consequences.

Still he thinks that perhaps Sokka should try. Maybe not become a master, but to learn just a little about his gift. He would understand if he didn't tell anyone else about it, a bit, especially if nothing comes of it and it turns out his greatest ability is lifting a small orb of water from a pond in the full moonlight. But surely letting…letting_ Uncle_ know and help him. Uncle studied the waterbenders' technique with Master Pakku. Uncle would be a great teacher for this!

His intentions must have shown on his face, because the next morning Sokka and Toph load up on the eel-hound. They give goodbyes and Mai even lets Sokka rub her belly without punching him, which Zuko thinks he deserves after all the revelations and especially after the idiot says, "Lemme rub the baby belly for good luck!"

Toph merely punches Zuko goodbye and tells Mai that the baby already has a strong heartbeat, which makes them both smile unexpectedly.

And then the two of them are off and out of touch for seven months, at which point Zuko wants nothing to do with anyone really and has put Sokka's minute Bending skills out of his mind.

x….x

A/N: Well, how'd I do? I hope you liked it!

InnocentGuilt


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I decided to continue this. The updates will probably be sparadic, due to my work schedule and the fact that I'm actually working on several other stories as well, but as they come to me I'll get them up. This takes place seven months after Toph and Sokka leave Zuko's palace.

Again, the pairings aren't set in stone, probably won't be, ever mainly because I really like the friendship-vibe that this story is starting in my mind. It will probably be from several different character's point of view, for instance this piece is from Sokka's point of view.

If you have any ideas that you find intriguing, leave me a line. I can't promise that they'll come up, but I am building a world and I realize I can't envision it all.

Standard disclaimers apply.

x….x

Sokka has become really talented at hand to hand combat. Over the years, living with the Kyoshi Warriors, it becomes a knack. He isn't as good as the warriors, just like they can't outmatch him at swordsmanship, but he's good enough to beat the drunk and the belligerent. He almost kinda likes it better than sword fighting. He never thought he would admit it, but he likes skin to skin contact. He likes the bruises and the pain, waking up every morning only to have to re-wrap his damaged hands and clean out the few cuts he's earned himself over the past several months.

It's an adrenaline rush, and the best one he gets these days when the war is over and everyone else is doing super important world-healing things.

He's not trying to mess balance up, neither he nor Toph are into anything of the sort. They fought hard for peace and if it's ever threatened anywhere that they can hear, they'll show a few rabble-rousers exactly where they can stick their discontent.

However, he and Toph…they don't really have much room in a peaceful world. They're both too loud, and really don't care enough about proper behavior. Even with Toph being the world's greatest earthbender there are few who can put up with her attitude, which is generally viewed as blasphemous by the masses, unladylike and out of place. Unwanted. And Sokka, well, Sokka's just the plan guy and his plans weren't always the best. They were nothing in comparison to master tacticians.

Neither of them really had a home to return to. Toph often said she would prance through the Spirit World before going back to that hodge-podge of politics and Sokka thinks he must have been travelling with a Nomad for too long, because the wind guides his steps these days too. They travel where the wind takes them, no longer trying to stay steady, like Toph's earth, just moving. They pack the essentials onto Eely, the eel-hound that Master Piandao had given to Sokka so long ago, and head off into dying sunsets, leaving behind them bar brawls, one-night stands, and friends.

But really that's not the point. The point is that he likes hand to hand, probably a lot more than he should, because he's just barely dodged a swift punch to his solar plexus and he can only smile and return a swift chop to the back of his assailant's neck. Somewhere in the din of pub, he can hear Toph's rambunctious laughter and resists the urge to see how her match is going, because she's probably taking down drunks left and right and making it look easy.

A bulky man rushes him, but at the last second Sokka hooks a stool with his foot and kicks it at him, tripping the man up and making him fall. Sokka laughs and turns around just in time to block a punch thrown at him, but not so much the elbow jabbed right into his gut.

He'll feel that one in the morning.

Sokka doubles over and his brief moment of distraction has the other guy reaching for his wolf's tail.

"Not the hair! Not the hair!" he squawks, hands reaching up to try to loosen the grip.

The man only releases his hair when he lands a solid punch to Sokka's nose, bloodying it and sending him stumbling back a few steps. He doesn't let the man out of his sight this time and when he comes volleying towards Sokka, but he sees something from the corner of his eye.

A hawk with Aang's insignia on its breast.

Aang almost never uses his insignia unless it's Really Important, capital letters and everything.

He blocks his opponents left jab and kicks his feet out from under him, sending him to the ground. The bulky man he knocked over with a chair over is coming at him again, but Sokka now has something that needs to be taken care of and he does something he almost never does. With a wave of his hand and a flick of his wrist, he helps a pool of knocked over ale slither in front of the other, slipping him up again.

"Toph!" he yells, over the din of breaking furniture and pub patrols wrestling. "Wrap it up!"

He only has a split second to find solid footing and then the earth beneath him rumbles, sending everyone but he on Toph to the floor. They make their retreat hastily, and Sokka whistles for Aang's hawk, who instantly flies over to Sokka's upraised arm.

They run to escape anyone who might try to follow them, but after a few streets they slow their pace down to a walk. Toph walks steadily beside him, not asking why they had to call an early end to their fun. She's probably 'seen' Gyatso already and if not, which is unlikely, she knows something's up because Sokka never ends their nights by using her earthbending. He'll fight tooth and nail to the end.

Sokka suppresses a sigh as he glances at the hawk resting on his arm. A fine tremor is shaking down his spine and he almost wants to dislodge the bird for spite. Something is wrong, really wrong. He can feel it in the way that the bird seems to be sitting heavier on his arm as if the news has weighed his feathers down too.

It's only when they get back to the Inn they're renting for the night, in the safety of the room they're sharing, much to the disapproval of the Innkeeper, that Sokka takes the message from the hawk. Gyatso flaps to the windowsill and stares at him balefully until he hands over a bit of jerky from a pouch on the table.

His heart is pounding fretfully in his chest. Aang's insignia is burned behind his eyelids. It speaks to him of bad news, news he doesn't want to know of.

He and Toph have been living a life of freedom, taking their days into their own hands and living how they feel. Sometimes it leads them to inns, but sometimes they camp out in the forest or open fields like the old days. They're nomads, and they don't often delight in finding out about what's going on in the everyday. They know of the peace treaties and small squabbles between nations through Aang and Katara, sometimes Zuko or Mai. Mostly though, they stay away from it, having nothing to truly offer to help rebuild the world.

"Read the stinking letter already, Snoozles!" Toph demands, flicking her head towards the scroll in his hand. Her long ponytail follows the motion and he's caught in it for a moment, wondering when this actually became his life.

He's terrified to read a letter from Aang.

He almost wants to tell Toph that they should go find another pub to start a fight in, that the letter can wait until tomorrow. He's never felt so cowardly in his entire life, but it's what he wants. He scrubs at the drying blood under his nose and then follows her order.

He unrolls the letter and the kanji are revealed to him.

For a moment, he almost doesn't comprehend them and then he does.

"Oh, Spirits," he breaths and his hands begin to shake. He's glad there's no liquid in the immediate vicinity because he knows it would dance to the rhythm of his pounding heart.

Toph stares into the distance of their room, her lips tightening as she registers the elevation in Sokka's heart.

"It's bad news," she says, the only thing giving away her apprehension is the slight elevation in her tone when she says 'bad.'

"Pack your things, Toph. We've gotta go." But he doesn't move. Only stares at the words before his eyes, heart aching.

Toph moves to start packing her wrappings and discarded clothing, shoving everything carelessly into her pack without care. She must recognize the severity of this situation, because she never follows his orders without hesitation.

He crumples the letter and throws it into a waste bin, still immobile.

At his stillness, Toph furthers her packing efforts. Shoving Sokka's items into his own bag, she makes sure to grab every last one of their things—and a few of the inn's things—and securely ties it all off. As she moves she finally works up the courage to ask, "What's going on, Sokka?"

It's his name that finally has the words on the paper stumbling from his lips, Aang's insignia still burned into his eyes. "Mai is dead."

All movement stops.

"She died during childbirth," he continues, his words hollow in his own ears. He can't believe it. They hadn't been to see Zuko or Mai in seven months, had left just after Zuko found out about his 'ability,' but Mai had been fine then. She had been strong and still threatening to lose shuriken in his soft belly.

How can someone be so strong and then die seven months later?

His pack flies into his arms harshly, but the dull pain he feels in his gut where one of the guys jabbed him earlier is welcome, much more welcome than the overwhelming pain in his heart.

"Zuko needs us," Toph says.

Zuko does need them. If Sokka feels such an ache in his heart for a woman who he had only loved as a good friend, he can imagine what Zuko is going through. He knows that he loved Yue, and he knows the pain he felt when she had to give her life back to the moon, and he had only loved and known her for a short time. Zuko had known Mai practically all his life…

That thought spurs him into action. Together, he and Toph leave the room and pay the Innkeeper; Sokka leaves a little extra for the items he knows Toph picked up. Sokka puts Eely's gear on while he's lying down and Toph clambers on to the double-saddle on the eel-hound's back, settling their things into the saddlebags. Sokka climbs on, clicking his tongue for Eely to stand up.

"Run fast, Eely. We've got a lotta ground to cover," he tells his pet and friend.

The scaly head comes up as if in understanding and without even a tap to his sides, Eely begins running at full speed, going where Sokka directs his reins. Toph wraps her arms around his waist, causing a small twinge of discomfort from his bruised abdomen, not that he says anything, and presses her head into his back. He knows she's not crying, not yet.

Sokka doesn't think it's really sunk in for either of them. The words keep looping in his head—

_Mai's dead…Mai's dead…Mai's dead…_

-But it hasn't really sunk in. He doesn't want to let it sink in.

He can't imagine their group made one less; he just can't and he knows Toph can't either. The gang is all family, and sometimes it feels like they're the only family they really have despite living relatives. Mai has been important to them all for five years.

She can't be gone.

They can't lose her.

_Zuko_ can't lose her. He's lost too much already.

Sokka feels his heart give a particularly painful and familiar lurch for his friend.

Zuko can't lose Mai. It's not right.

Toph tightens her hands in his tunic momentarily. "The baby's okay, right?"

Sokka swallows and nods. "He was born screaming…"

…for a mother he would never know.

Sokka wishes he could have just one more fight before they leave the city. He wishes he could have more bruises and cuts to help numb the burning pain that's slowly building inside him.

They reach the ocean and Eely dives in without pause, gracefully gliding from running to swimming.

For the first time, Sokka wishes he had more control over the water like his sister so that he could make the tides move Eely faster to Capital City. He knows he can't, but he wishes it like he's never wished since he found out about his stupid trickle of bending. For the first time since he was five, and watching Katara bend water with ease, he wishes he had all that magic mumbo-jumbo. He needs to get to his friend as quickly as possible. An eel-hound may be the fastest swimmer in the world, but right now it's just not fast enough.

Overhead Gyatso flies as if guiding them and the insignia glints in the half-light of his first love, the moon.

'Please,' he breathes to her.

He must have whispered too softly. They arrive five days after Mai's death and Zuko will see no one, save for his son.

Mai is really dead.

It's a sucker punch to his heart with no form to retaliate against.

x….x

A/N: I do fully understand if you would like to leave hatemail. Her death may seem out of no where and perhaps it is, but it was actually in the plot for this timeline I had in my head from the very beginning.

InnocentGuilt


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm not entirely pleased with this, but I've been fiddling with it for what feels like eons (my Sunday afternoon, big whoop). I played around with it for these last three hours, but I've finally settled. This is how it's going to be.

I kinda melded this from the idea Kimberly T. left me in her last review. It started nibbling at me and suddenly there was a chapter! Like magic!

Standard disclaimers apply.

x….x

So, breaking into the palace is sadly a lot easier than it should be. Sure the guards are practically swarming like ants, and there aren't a lot of places to not be seen when you and your blind friend are sneaking around the wall in a decidedly suspicious manner. However, they're both wearing white like most everyone who's milling around the palace walls and they move slowly enough around that it doesn't exactly_ look_ like they're sneaking.

They're just two mourners, like everyone else. They may not have candles or foods, pictures, heck, not even a letter for the Fire Lady's spirit to read and know how loved she was, but they are mourners.

Unlike everyone else, they are on a mission.

After three days, Toph and Sokka had reached the end of their admittedly short rope. Capital City was in a small uproar over so many different things that it was dizzying. Mourners for Mai seemingly came from all over the world. Rejoicing peoples came from just as far to celebrate the birth of her son. Devoted fans and anti-Avatar groups alike had come to swarm the large, elegant inn that the Avatar team had stationed themselves. It was manic and it set everyone on edge, and to put on top of all that…no one had heard anything from Zuko since he had sent out word of his wife's death and son's subsequent birth. No one even knew the young prince's name.

Everyone was still grieving the loss of their friend, but more than that they were grieving the absence of another friend who didn't feel that he could share in his pain with them.

They had done everything to get to him without resorting to sneaking in. Iroh had used his status as the Fire Lord's uncle, but the guards had only looked at him sadly and shaken their head while bringing their spears to make an 'X' before Iroh's nose. Aang had used his status as the Avatar, something he very rarely did, but they had looked at him balefully and again shaken their heads. They had each attempted something only to be turned away. Even Suki and Ty Lee had tried; Ty Lee had always been a welcome figure at the palace as she was Mai's best friend.

Nothing.

Sokka and Toph feel they have no diplomatic option left. They are breaking in.

Sokka's scouted the area, having spent all of yesterday on the inn's roof taking note of shift changes and which areas are least watched. That night, after most of the mourners had left and the rest of their group was getting ready for sleep, he and Toph had snuck out to find the iron grates on a little ditch in the wall. They hadn't bended then, as most of the crowds were away and he and Toph would need as much noise as possible to keep the groaning of metal covered.

Which is where they are today. The continuous chatter of grievers and celebrators is loud under the hot Fire Nation sun, so when Toph bends the metal bars far enough apart for them to squeeze through no one notices. The groan of flexing metal is lost in the din.

When they slip inside palace walls, Sokka stands, proud with the plan so far and super glad that Toph is who she is. "Have I mentioned how awesome it is having a metalbender for a best friend?" he asks exuberantly.

She smirks and flicks her bangs out of her eyes. "Not within the last hour," she says with a healthy dose of smugness in her voice.

He doesn't feel that it's a bad thing to feed her ego right now. He throws his hands in the air and declares, "It is_ awesome_ having a metal bender for my best friend!"

That earns him a punch to the arm and a heartfelt, "Thanks, Snoozles," but then it's all business again. She turns and hops out of the ditch, Sokka not far behind her. They'll have to be careful now. From the ditch to the relative safety of the palace walls is a good distance and they'll be two lone, white-clad figures streaking across a field of green. Not precisely subtle.

They make it by the grace of the spirits without being seen, and they quickly meander down into some of the servants' quarters. They discard they're soiled white robes, tinted brown at the bottom from the ditch water. It won't matter now. They throw they're robes into a waste bin and change swiftly, having no qualms about changing in front of the other, after so long travelling together.

Dressed in humble reds, they reset a path in the palace, heading for Zuko's rooms in the East Wing.

Sokka knows from his several different visits to the palace over the last five years that the servants will come to ask Zuko what he wishes to have for dinner about three hours before the fading sun. All they needed to do was convince the guard they were some of the help and that they needed to know their Lord's preferences for dinner.

Easy.

Only not.

"State your purpose," one of the guards stationed outside Zuko's quarters demands in a brusque, no-nonsense tone.

Sokka doesn't flinch. He supposes that after so long of being on the run with Aang and so many years just wandering and doing what had to be done to carry on, becoming a different person on the fly isn't much of a hassle. He dips his head, and knows that behind him, Toph hasn't even lifted hers once they were in the East Wing.

"We've come to see what the Fire Lord requests for his supper." He's heard the sentence so much when he visits that if he closes his eyes he can almost imagine one of Zuko's actual servants asked it, not him.

"Fire Lord Zuko wishes for turkey-dove. He gave no specifications for how it should be prepared," the other guard says.

Sokka mentally rolls his eyes. Of course Zuko would have told his guards what he wanted. He apparently hadn't been kidding when he said he wished to see no one. Very well. Nothing a good lie won't fix. "The cook is out of turkey-dove. The last shipment was spoiled. Might we ask if there's something else our Lord would be satisfied with?"

The guards are stoically silent for moments on end, and then the first one leans towards the second, whispering to him behind his hand. Like that'll do any good with Toph around, but they don't know that.

"Stay here," the second one says. "I'll inform the Fire Lord of this."

He opens the door, and that is apparently the point where Toph has had enough. She bends the guards' feet into the stone, then their hands as they reach down for balance and Sokka wastes no time in ripping off some strands of his tunic to create make-shift gags. He secures them tightly between each guard's teeth, telling the first one, "Don't worry. We'll make sure to commend your totally awesome guarding skills to the Fire Lord."

He smirks at the man, and is only offered a glare in return. He pats the man on the head, but Toph grabs his elbow shortly after that, hauling him into Zuko's rooms.

The place is as pristine as ever, and for a moment Sokka can almost pretend that this is a surprise visit. Mai is okay and she'll be holding her son while glaring at them for the disruption. Zuko will be at his desk, poring over documents, because even though the Fire Lord has a new son, doesn't mean the world-healing will be put on hold.

But the sitting room is devoid of life. Toph gives a dissatisfied grunt and heads further into the chambers opening a door on the east side with flourish. Sokka is right behind her in an instant, guarding her back like he's always done, even though there's no point at the moment.

The room Toph opened is what must be Mai's bedroom. Sokka for some reason or another knows that she and Zuko shared the same bed, but it is customary for noblemen and women to have separate bedrooms. He also knows this is Mai's room because of the knife marks in the stone walls, a set of files on the vanity, and some other small features that were purely Mai.

And in one of her love seats sits Zuko. He's devoid of his normal Fire Lord robes, but he isn't wearing white. It's the same style of outfit he wore when he joined Aang's cause. Simple peasant clothing from the Fire Nation. Beside him, there's a small bassinette and he rocks it gently.

Sokka feels his heart break a little for the picture displayed to him.

Mai should be sitting beside Zuko. She should be watching the bassinette rock with the same intensity Zuko does. Sokka can imagine that seeing her child would be one of the few times Mai wouldn't have looked so completely bored with life.

Zuko is surprisingly the first one to speak, slow dulcet tones rocking with the bassinette. "I should have known it would be you two who broke into the palace. I suppose I should be glad there are no holes in my walls."

Sokka smiles, only a little forced. "We were going for stealth."

A smirk hints at his features but fades just as quickly. "I wanted some time alone with him," he says, solemn and sounding like he used to when he first joined their group. He slows the rocking bassinette and peers in with a look of adoration and loss somehow mingling flawlessly in his eyes.

Toph steps forward. "What's his name, Sparky?"

She drags her feet, as if trying to get the bassinette to reveal the baby's features to her. She stops by the crib and stares blankly just past it. Zuko twitches, waiting to strike. It reminds Sokka of animals with their cubs. Toph presents no threat though. Right now she is just the earth, steady as she gently reaches out her hand.

The Fire Lord watches with a mangle of emotions flickering in his eye. Toph won't be the first woman to touch his son. Somewhere in the palace there are probably two or three wet nurses to feed the baby, but Toph will probably be the first one who will automatically love him upon first touch, something that should have been bestowed to Mai.

"Vayu," he breathes, somewhat choked. "We had decided to call him Vayu if she gave birth to a son."

Sokka takes that time to see the baby as well, walking up behind Toph, who gently strokes his cheek with calloused fingers. Vayu is…well he looks like a baby to Sokka. He's never been like his sister who can just look at a child and its parents and decide the child looks like the mother or the father. He can tell once they get older, but when they're this young…well the baby just looks like a cute, pudgy baby. They all kinda look the same to him.

Vayu has a mop of dark hair on his head, fine as silk from the looks of it. He's pale like both his parents, with a blush across his cheeks and rosy little lips. That's all Sokka can really see of the baby.

Sokka leans further over the crib. He feels like he's searching for something in the child's sleeping face, but he isn't finding any answers. He glances up at Zuko, whose complete attention is on his son.

Zuko looks like his entire life is now wrapped in fine silks. His life now revolves around a tiny infant that cries and screams, and makes big messes for someone so small, and can't even communicate to the world. It's a good look for him, and one he can't imagine coming from his ancestors. Sokka's gaze catches the scar across Zuko's left eye. No, he can't imagine any of Zuko's ancestors being this in love with their child.

"He rises with the sun," Zuko says quietly, his own hand reaching out to caress the baby's jaw, pale thumb dancing over Vayu's brow.

Toph lifts her hand away when she brushes it against Zuko's hand, a small blush gracing her features. She looks a little embarrassed to have witnessed such an adoring display.

Sokka gets when Zuko is saying though. Vayu will likely be a firebender. Vaguely, in the far reaches of his memory, he can hear a woman's voice telling GranGran that he and Katara were nightmares to get to sleep at night. He can hear the voice saying it was like the moon had some hold on he and his sister. He thinks it may have been his mother, but he isn't always sure.

Sokka puts his hand to the baby's belly, feels the strong rise and fall of his breathing. "He's a cute kid," he says, because he doesn't necessarily know what else to say. "The others would love to meet him…'specially Iroh and Aang." They are the two of the Gang Zuko feels closest to; Sokka knows that.

The Fire Lord nods. "If Toph releases my guards, I'll have them send for everyone."

Toph snorts. "Fine. I'll release the guards."

She then stomps off to unbind the two men left outside the rooms. Sokka stays though, his hand watching the rise and fall. He still looks to Vayu for answers to some unknown question, and though the baby doesn't have any resolve to give him he feels okay with that.

Suddenly Zuko speaks again; this time with just a trace of humor. "You look terrible by the way."

Sokka laughs, feeling his fading bruises; tries not to feel like this is a funeral for many things being held in a dead friend's room.

x….x

A/N: I tried to encompass many things for this chapter. I wanted to show that Zuko was grieving but trying to carry on for his child. I personally don't see him breaking down into tears, but I also can't see him throwing the biggest fit in the world anymore. I believe Mai's death would leave him a little numb to begin with. Also, I kinda wanted to focus on Sokka as a Plan-Guy rather than the man hiding the fact that he has some ability to bend.

Leave me thoughts and critiques. I'm open for all.

InnocentGuilt


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